1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaner for a roving apparatus, and in particular to a cleaner for a roving apparatus characterized in a carrying operation in which fiber waste and so on carried by air flow toward the rear of a roller beam is further conveyed to the end of the apparatus frame in order to prevent the fiber waste and so on from accumulating on a flyer rail and the roller beam.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, to clean roller groups of a draft apparatus in a roving apparatus, a top clearer cloth and a bottom clearer cloth are provided, which are rotated while being in contact with an upper roller group and a lower roller group, respectively. Both the clearer cloths are, in turn, cleaned by scrapers (scraping member) in contact with the clearer cloths which scrape the adhered fibers from the clearer cloths. The fibers (i.e. cotton dust) thus scraped from the top clearer cloth are removed manually by an operator or by a cleaner through a window provided on a cover located above the top clearer cloth.
On the other hand, the fibers thus scraped from the bottom clearer cloth fall onto a roller beam supporting a roller stand. The fallen fibers are then-carried by air flow, which blows toward a rear end of the roller beam from a blowing outlet provided at a front end of a flyer rail, until the fibers reach a suction duct or a belt conveyor provided rearward of the draft apparatus, with the result that the fibers are removed from the apparatus.
The apparatus in which the fibers are removed using the suction duct suffers from the following problems. That is, the fan motor consumes much electric power to generate a negative pressure in the suction duct, and the fiber waste accumulates on an upper portion of the suction duct. The presence of the suction duct hinders the maintenance around the roller parts (the bottom clearance, etc.) from a backside (a rear side) of the roving apparatus frame.
To solve these problems, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 1-142474 discloses an apparatus, as shown in FIG. 28, in which a belt conveyor 72 is extended along a longitudinal direction of the apparatus frame rearward of a roller beam 71, and a cover 73 is disposed opposite from the roller beam 71 with respect to the belt conveyor 72 to prevent over-carrying of the fiber waste. In this apparatus, the air flow blowing out from an air-blowing tube 77 provided at a front end of the flyer rail 76 carries the fibers scraped from a bottom clearer cloth 74 and the fiber waste generated in a draft apparatus 75 and accumulating onto an upper surface of the flyer rail 76 or roller beam 71 (hereafter, the fibers and the fiber waste are simply referred to as the fibers, etc., when applicable), so that the fibers, etc., accumulate on the belt conveyor 72. Then, the fibers, etc., are conveyed by the conveyor 72 to the end of the apparatus frame where they are removed from the belt conveyor 72 by a removing device (not shown) at the end of the apparatus frame.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 58-13727 discloses another apparatus as shown in FIG. 29. In this apparatus, a pair of wheels (pulleys) 79 are provided on an apparatus frame 78 lowered by one step from a rear end of a roller beam 71, and an endless tape 80 is suspended between the wheels 79. A cloth (not shown) is attached to the tape 80. The rotation of the wheels 79 causes the movement of the tape 80 along the roller beam 71, and the fibers, etc., are engaged with the cloth running along with the tape 80, to thereby be conveyed to the end of the apparatus frame 78 where the fibers, etc., are sucked by a suction duct (not shown) provided at the end of the apparatus frame 78.
In the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Utility Model No. 1-142474 (see FIG. 28), the upper surface of the belt conveyor 72 on which the fibers, etc., accumulate is arranged to be at the same level as the upper surface of the roller beam 71, and the cover 73 for preventing the over-carrying of the cotton dust is disposed to project upward from the upper surface of the belt conveyor 72. Consequently, the stronger air flow blowing out from the air-blowing tube 77 may blow up the fibers, etc., by impinging on the cover 73. An adjustment of the blowing air flow to avoid this phenomenon is troublesome.
The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 58-13727 (see FIG. 29) is free from the aforementioned problem associated with the air flow blowing out from the air-blowing tube 77. However, the absence of a wall opposite from the roller beam 71 with respect to the apparatus frame 78 lowered by one step from-the roller beam 71 results in the high possibility that some of the fibers, etc., may fall from the apparatus frame 78 when the fibers, etc., accumulating on the apparatus frame 78 are engaged with and conveyed by the cloth moving along with the tape 80. Further, the fibers, etc., are likely to fall from the apparatus frame 78 by being hit by air flow blowing out from a performs so-called traveling cleaner which performs cleaning operation by blowing air flow therefrom while travelling along a spinning machine frame. Moreover, since the apparatus is designed to move the fibers, etc., with very soft material such as cloth, if the amount of the fibers, etc., is large, it is difficult to convey the fibers, etc., against the friction of resistance between the fibers, etc., and the apparatus frame 78 or the roller beam 71.
The present invention has been made to overcome the aforementioned problems, and therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner for a roving apparatus, which is free from the adverse effects caused by air flow blowing along an upper surface of a roller beam toward the rear of the roller beam, and which is capable of collecting the fibers, dust, leaf rag, etc. removed from a bottom roller and the fiber waste, etc. to be accumulated onto a flyer rail and the roller beam (fibers, dust leaf rag, fiber waste, etc. are hereafter referred to simply as fibers, etc., when applicable) to the rear of the roller beam, and conveying the fibers to the end of an apparatus frame where the fibers, etc., are collected.